The New Zealand AIDS Foundation is welcoming the Vatican's shift in its previously hard-line stance on condom use and sexuality. Pope Benedict XVI has stated that condom use in exceptional circumstances to prevent the transmission of HIV is acceptable, citing male sex workers as an example. In an interview with a German journalist, the Pope conceded that condoms can reduce the rate of HIV infection. The interview will be in a book which will be released this week, coinciding with World AIDS Day, marked globally on 1 December. The Vatican has since downplayed the Pope's comments, saying that they were not “revolutionary”. NZAF Executive Director Rachael Le Mesurier says the Foundation is pleased that at last the Catholic Church is recognising that condoms actually do prevent the transmission of HIV and that men who have sex with men do exist and are entitled to protect themselves and their partners from HIV. The NZAF believes that the comments by the Pope are a positive step but also long overdue. “The Pope has recognised the importance of a humane approach to human sexuality, something we feel is essential in addressing the HIV epidemic with a human rights-based approach,” Le Mesurier says. “The Vatican has faced mounting pressure about its views towards non-heterosexual relationships and at last seems to opening up to the fact that millions of people do not live this way.” Le Mesurier says abstinence-only approaches to HIV prevention are not in step with the reality of life for more than 1.1 billion Catholics in New Zealand and around the world. “This is the first sign we have had that the Vatican is aware that Catholics with HIV need not be condemned to a lifetime of abstinence or guilt each time they use a condom to protect themselves and their partners from HIV.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 22nd November 2010 - 2:05pm